“Do I think that will govern and temper how I talk about them going forward? Absolutely.”

In January, the journalist accused the duchess, 38, of having “ditched” her own relatives, and “split” the duke, 35, from the rest of his family after they announced they were “stepping back” from their royal duties.

In a post on Twitter, he wrote: “People say I'm too critical of Meghan Markle - but she ditched her family, ditched her Dad, ditched most of her old friends, split Harry from William and has now split him from the Royal Family. I rest my case.”

The star, who is married to journalist Celia Walden, and has four children, claimed in 2016 - around the time it was first revealed the couple were dating - that he was friends with the then-actress.

Piers said that in June of that year she had sent him a message revealing herself to be a “fan”.

The pair went for a drink at a Kensington pub, before she took a taxi on the same night to a dinner in Mayfair and was later in the evening seen at Soho House with her future royal husband.

Speaking about their social media exchange on his breakfast show, he said: “She sent me a direct message [on Twitter] and said 'thanks for the follow, hey I'm a big fan of yours.' We exchanged some fun stuff.

"My take on her was she's very beautiful, she's very intelligent, she's 35, she's been divorced, her dad's black her mum's white and she had some problems with that growing up."

Piers recently banned talk of the duke and duchess on his show after the couple announced there’d be no further “corroboration” and “zero engagement” between them and four UK tabloids.

Last month, the presenter branded them “repulsive, deluded narcissistic tools” on Twitter for making the comments during the coronavirus pandemic.

He said: “Let’s not talk about Meghan and Harry today I can’t be arsed. Let’s just forget about them.”

When co-host Susanna Reid pointed out that by continually “digging” at the couple he wasn’t forgetting about them at all.

She suggested they not discuss them for the rest of the week, an idea which her fellow star seemed keen on.

He said: “Seriously, [that’s] a great idea. They banned a number of newspapers, today we’re banning Meghan and Harry from Good Morning Britain for the foreseeable future. You’re done, toast, it’s over.”